New York, July 15 (BNA): The UN Security Council asked the UN Secretary-General on Friday to put forward options to help fight armed gangs in Haiti, including a possible international peacekeeping force and a non-UN multinational force.
A resolution adopted unanimously by the council requires UN Secretary-General António Guterres to report on a “full range” of options within 30 days to improve the security situation, including additional training for the Haitian National Police and support to combat the illicit arms trade. to the poor Caribbean country.
It also authorizes up to 70 UN police and corrections advisers to step up support and training for Haiti’s understaffed and underfunded national police force. It also “encourages” countries, especially in the Caribbean, to heed calls by the Prime Minister of Haiti and Guterres to deploy a specialized international force.
According to the Associated Press, Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry sent an urgent appeal last October for the “immediate deployment of a specialized armed force in sufficient quantities” to stop the gangs. However, more than eight months later, no country has stepped up to command such a force.
Guterres, who visited Haiti earlier this month, called last week for a strong international force to help the Haitian National Police “defeat and dismantle the gangs”.
He said the estimate by the UN’s independent expert on Haiti, William O’Neill, that an additional 2,000 anti-gang police officers would be needed was not an exaggeration. O’Neill, who completed a 10-day trip to Haiti this month, is an American attorney who has been working in Haiti for more than 30 years and helped create the Haitian National Police in 1995.
The gangs’ power has grown since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise on July 7, 2021, and it is now estimated that they control up to 80% of the capital. Escalating killings, rapes, and kidnappings led to a violent uprising by vigilante groups.
The guerrilla war exacerbates the country’s political crisis: Haiti was stripped of all democratically elected institutions when the terms of office of the country’s 10 remaining senators expired in early January.
The resolution, co-sponsored by the United States and Ecuador, urges all countries to prohibit the supply, sale or transfer of weapons to anyone who supports gang violence and criminal activities.
It reiterates the need for all Haitians, with the support of the UN political mission known as BIHUH, to establish “a political process led and owned by Haitians in order to allow for the organization of free, fair and credible legislative and presidential elections.” It also calls on Haitians to “urgently reach agreement on a sustainable, time-bound, and generally accepted roadmap for holding elections.”
The resolution extends BINUH’s mandate until July 15, 2024, and encourages the mission to “explore options to strengthen the criminal justice sector in Haiti to combat impunity.”
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